NULC STARS Squad Trip to the Velodrome

NULC STARS Squad - Trip to the Velodrome April 2013.
 

Newcastle-under-Lyme STARS Squad members along with Deb O’Neill and Keith Harrison went to the Manchester Velodrome, home of British cycling for the day on Monday 15 April.  They had an hour on the track, coached by a British Cycling coach in the art of track cycling.  
 
Our own STARS squad member, Sallie Birchall, is a regular at the track with her cycling training programme and she showed the rest of the squad how it is done, on her own bike.  The rest of the squad quickly took to riding up the banked slopes and showed their natural sporting ability sprinting around the track.  Sarah Mainwaring had a slight fall, but being a World Champion at Kickboxing, quickly got back on her bike to continue the session.
 
At lunch, the squad went into the BMX arena to find the GB riders training for the first world competition being held at the venue.  Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips practised their starts and jumps over the track.  At the weekend both Reade and Phillips created an historic double-double for Great Britain at the first round of the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Manchester, winning both Friday's time trial and Saturday's main event.

After lunch, the squad were given a tour of the arena and realised how steep the banking on the cycle track was from the spectator view, where they had just been riding!  Sallie Birchall and Connor Grimes went head to head in a Watt Bike session, where Team GB regularly train to maximum.  It was interesting to see how the arena is used for other sports, including Badminton, Basketball, Indoor Rowing and Netball.  It demonstrates how a facility can be shared between elite athletes and members of the local community in a profit making way, ensuring the future of such high standard facilities will be maintained.
 
Then the squad were fortunate to see some of the Team GB track team train on the track where they had just been training.  Phillip Hindes and Becky James and were just two of the superstars on show.  Hindes won the team sprint with Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy at the London 2012 Olympic Games and received an MBE.  James is tipped to surpass Victoria Pendleton’s success.  In the 2013 UCI Track Cycling World Championships she gained two Gold and two Bronze medals, making her the first Briton to win four medals in one World Championships competition.  It was also interesting to see a Paralympic athlete train with the Olympic athletes -the Disability Programme runs alongside the able bodied Programmes and it has the sole aim of winning Paralympic Gold medals.

All the squad members thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the experience of training in a World Class facility.  Our next trip will hopefully be on the BMX track for a similar experience.
 
To find out more about the STARS Squad contact Deb O’Neill deborah.o'neill@nulc.ac.uk.